ʻATENISI INSTITUTE

HUMANITIES

E.L. 315 – Literature of Western Polynesia

The course opens with a thematic and stylistic analysis of Alfred Wendt’s depiction of Samoan expatriate life and romance, Sons for the Return Home. Through interpretation of Wendt’s debut novel and its cinematic adaption, students will wrestle with the conflict between traditional Polynesian values and those of pākehā New Zealand. The class will conclude with a review of Tales of the Tikongs, a satire on Tongan development by the late anthropologist ʻEpeli Hauʻofa.

HIST. 322 – Topics in 19th Century Tongan History

An interdisciplinary review of the reign of King George Tupou I, focusing on his military strategy and resulting achievements in politics, law, and religion.

PHIL. 240, 340 – Introduction to Logic

An introduction to systematic inference, with each module of the course addressing both formal and fallacious thinking. The class will cover inductive and deductive reasoning, syllogisms, contrapositives, converse and inverse statements, and Venn diagrams. Common fallacies will be studied through examples of incorrect logic.

PHIL. 350, 450 – Ethics

A systematic study of valid social behaviour comprising meta-ethics (i.e., ethical theory), normative ethics (i.e., methods for determining moral action), and applied ethics (i.e., ethics appropriate for specific theatres or domains). The course will initially review the often opposing ethical thought of Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Bentham, Mill, Nietzsche, Sartre, and Camus, before focusing on political, scientific, and media ethics.

SP.L. 100 – Conversational Spanish

Introduction to Spanish as a foreign language – pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar. Development of communicative skills through the practice of communicative functions, including reading, writing, and dialogue.

SOCIAL SCIENCE

POL STUD 315, 415 – Post-colonial Theory

A global survey of political and cultural theory applicable to post-colonial societies. It begins with a range of mid-20th century authors from the Middle East, Caribbean and Africa (Albert Memmi, Frantz Fanon, Edward Said, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o), then moves on to late 20th century writers of the Pacific Islands (Epeli Hauʻofa, Albert Wendt, Kamisese Mara, Linda Tuhiwai-Smith). The course concludes with critical assessments of post-colonial thought by Australian analyst Stephanie Lawson and Tongan philosopher ʻI. Futa Helu.

SOC 300, 400 – History of Social Thought

The course surveys the evolution of sociological theory from its origin in the mid-19th century to the present. It initially examines the origin of systematic theory in the wake of the French Revolution (i.e., the "social physics" of Auguste Comte) and then proceeds to analyse the key contributions of Émile Durkheim and (the young) Karl Marx in France, Max Weber, Georg Simmel, and Karl Mannheim in Germany, Thorstein Veblen in the U.S., and Antonio Gramsci in Italy.

PAC. STUD. 422 – Topics in 19th Century Tongan History

An interdisciplinary review of the reign of King George Tupou I, focusing on his military strategy and resulting achievements in politics, law, and religion.